The 2022 Bathurst 1000 will be a bitter-sweet occasion for Holden fans, when the brand is farewelled from the Supercars championship at Mount Panorama.
This year’s running of the Bathurst 1000 will be the final time a Holden takes to the Mountain in a Supercars race.
While it is the end of a 50-year era, it also signals the start of a new period for GM in Australia and New Zealand, with the advent of Chevrolet Racing and a resurrection of the rivalry between Camaro and Mustang when the Gen3 Supercars debut at Newcastle in March 2023.
“The passion and excitement of success on the track has been such an important part of our Holden brand DNA,”GM Australia and New Zealand managing director Marc Ebolo says.
“This will continue to grow with the new Chevrolet Racing brand and, together with our close alignment with GM Motorsport, will be an ongoing demonstration of our dedication to competition and commitment to the sport.
“The demands of racing align with our vision for GM in Australia and New Zealand and will continue to be a significant reflection for all our brands, including GM Specialty Vehicles, GM Trade Parts and ACDelco.
“Holden Certified Service plays an integral part as well, as it maintains an important presence to service the more than 1.5-million Holden vehicles still on the road in Australia and New Zealand,” he says
Holden’s helmeted heroes
Holden cars starting with the Monaro, then the Torana and more recently a succession of Commodore V8s, have amassed 35 wins in the Bathurst 500/1000 at Mount Panorama, most recently at the hands of Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth for WAU in 2021.
In 1968, racer/journalist David McKay organised a quasi-factory three-car team of Monaro V8s for that year’s Bathurst 500, but privateer Bruce McPhee took victory (with modest help from Barry Mulholland, who drove one lap to meet the regulations). This was the first win for Holden in Australia’s best-known race.
Holden Factory support began officially in 1969 in defiance of parent company General Motors banning its brands worldwide from participation in motor racing, although trials and rallies were permitted. With sales director John Bagshaw trumpeting the marketing benefits of putting performance-based models on the track, Holden skirted the ban by establishing the Holden Dealer Team. Nominally owned by its dealers, the reality was that Holden bankrolled the entire campaign, with Harry Firth wooed from Ford to run the squad. Firth plucked from near obscurity smiley rally driver Colin Bond and shaggy haired Peter Brock, who had been racing a pint-sized A30 with a Holden engine.
The annual Bathurst 500, then an endurance race for production cars, was the Holden Dealer Team’s first test, pitting the three HDT Monaro GTS 350 coupes against the favoured Ford Falcon GTHOs.
In a fairy-tale initiation, Bond and Tony Roberts took a stunning victory with teammates Brock and Des West third. The other team car was sixth.
Holden owners rejoiced along with the company and dealers.
Over the following decade the HDT victories and reputation grew while the team went through management changes, new choices of track weapons, and an array of different drivers.
Brock’s star was ascendant, wins piling on wins, building the legend of driver and brand. In a 15-year period between 1972 and 1987, Brock made the Mount Panorama circuit his own, winning the Bathurst 1000 a record nine times – and always in a Holden.
He finished an incredible third outright on his Bathurst debut, driving a Monaro GTS 350 alongside veteran Des West, cementing his future with the Holden Dealer Team (HDT).
Three years later in 1972, Brock took his first win in The Great Race, driving solo in the iconic HDT prepared LJ Torana XU-1.
Having established himself as one of Australia’s best young drivers and with a growing fan base, Brock took his breakthrough Bathurst victory on a wet track that claimed experienced competitors such as HDT teammate Colin Bond and Ford rival Allan Moffat. Brock went on to leave the Bathurst record book in tatters, winning again in 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1987.
Turbulent times
The success continued until the Brock-Holden partnership crashed and burned spectacularly early in 1987, when the head-strong ace insisted on fitting a simple device called the “Energy Polarizer” to his latest series of Holden-based performance road cars. This move massively impacted on Brock’s special vehicles company and his role as Holden’s race-track hero. Refusing to accept Brock’s claims of better performance attributed to the unscientific device, Holden terminated the relationship.
Out of the turmoil a new factory Holden Racing Team emerged, a joint venture between Holden and the entrepreneurial Scot Tom Walkinshaw. After a stumbling start, and with ex-Holden executive John Crennan taking charge, the HRT weathered the challenges of revolutionary rule changes, serious economic challenges and the usual hard competition to flourish as a powerhouse of the sport.
Turbo hordes from Europe and Japan dominated during this difficult time for Holden teams. But in 1990, HRT’s Win Percy and gun-for-hire Allan Grice combined to beat the foreign invaders to win the Bathurst 1000.
After a few years in the wilderness, Brock returned to the Holden fold in 1994 in what was dubbed a marriage of convenience lubricated by sponsorship money and expediency.
Brock couldn’t win that elusive 10th Bathurst classic, but he did land HRT’s first ever championship round victory at Eastern Creek Raceway.
In 1994, Mark Skaife broke the lengthy Holden championship drought dating back to 1980, winning for Gibson Motorsport.
Then in 1995, racer/engineer and Holden fan hero Larry Perkins, with co-driver Russell Ingall, delivered an almost impossible outcome in the Bathurst 1000, charging from last to victory.
HRT golden era
Powered by the drive and enthusiasm of Crennan and then Holden chairman and managing director (1999-2003) Peter Hanenberger, and race team manager for 12 years Jeff Grech, Holden’s track fortunes rocketed during the late 1990s and early 2000s. This was the era of superstar drivers Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife, who collectively amassed a remarkable record of wins at Bathurst and in the championship series.
This iteration of HRT was one of the most successful in the history of the Supercars’ category, winning six drivers’ championships and seven Bathurst 1000s before 2017.
Skaife says a highlight was the 2002 season when he won the Bathurst classic, the championship and both legs of the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide “I’m immeasurably proud of the part I played during this period, arguably the most competitive time in the sport if you consider the class of the drivers and the depth of the field.
“It was very special to win so consistently then with the support of armies of passionate Holden fans.”
Despite business headaches, ownership changes and the death of Tom Walkinshaw in 2010, the Holden Special Vehicles road-car operation boomed too, aided by the HRT track triumphs and clear DNA links to the Commodore race cars.
Skaife says that during that golden era more than 60% of the grandstands were filled with red shirts. “HRT merchandise sales were massive, and HRT was the number one sporting brand in Australia.”
Flying Kiwis
New Zealand-born Jim Richards raced for several iterations of the factory Holden team, winning three times with Peter Brock (1978-79-80) and then in 2002 alongside Skaife.
He recalled the impressive levels of professionalism. “Obviously back in the 1970s and ‘80s, the budgets were smaller and there were fewer people in the workshop, but the factory Holden team was the benchmark.”
Another stunning moment for Holden came in 2003, when kiwi Greg Murphy gifted his fans the unforgettable “Lap of the Gods” This was his scintillating qualifying lap around the mountain to take pole position for the Bathurst 1000, which he and Rick Kelly duly won in a satellite Kmart Racing Commodore.
In an emotional weekend, Shane ‘SVG’ van Gisbergen claimed an emphatic victory for Holden and Red Bull Ampol Racing at Pukekohe in 2022. The announcement that this was to be the final event at the iconic circuit, produced an unprecedented atmosphere – and SVG did not disappoint the Kiwi Holden fans with a dominant performance.
Thanks Holden Fans
In the peak of the COVID pandemic, the Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodores rolled out at Bathurst 2020 for the very last time to represent the Holden factory team.
Over 50 years of Holden factory support came to an end that day, when Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander represented the icon brand one last time as full-time Holden factory race driver’s.
As a tribute to the millions of Holden fans who watched the great race on television that year, a unique livery for the #888 and #97 ZB Commodore Supercars, bore the striking #ThanksHoldenFans graphic in a respectful acknowledgement to the many wonderful supporters, drivers, engineers, dealers, commercial partners, marketers, and everyone who helped make so many great memories.
Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander prevailed for Holden that day, and in an emotional tribute to the brand, SVG paused on Conrod during his victory lap to take a Holden Motorsport flag from passionate fan Dennis King. The iconic images of this incredible moment are now etched in Holden Motorsport history.
“It was a real team effort and a special way to say farewell to the Holden brand in Australia as a new car brand. To close it off this way had some real meaning for the fans and Holden ex-employees and Dealers and everyone else who have put so much into Holden over the last 70 plus years, so I’m very happy that we’ve played a part in that” Triple Eight Engineering managing director Roland Dane said at the time.
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